“The team is completely intact”

Fraser Hornby is doing rehab in England. Marvin Mehlem and Clemens Riedel are doing the rehab here in our stadium. In addition, Matthias Bader, Fabian Holland and Fabian Nürnberger were also out. That means there are definitely five potential regular players missing. Matej Maglica suffered a minor injury during training yesterday. But I believe that he will be back in the final training session tomorrow. Back on the pitch are Fabian Schnellhardt and Braydon Manu, who have made a decent impression after their long-term injuries.

We discussed that we wanted to change a few things on the pitch independently of Leipzig. It’s about security and clarity. We stay with ourselves. There are no games in which we have nothing to lose. After all, it’s always about points. The challenge in Leipzig is as big as it gets. The most important thing will be how ready the boys are and to believe in the things that we have worked on with great concentration during the training week and to implement them on Saturday.

Leipzig had an unfortunate exit against Real Madrid yesterday. That says everything about the challenge we have before us. Leipzig has no weaknesses – and that is exactly their strength.

It wasn’t an easy week. I thought long and hard about how I would approach the team after this defeat. Which words do I choose? How did I – and that was my main task – get my team back together quickly? My feeling tells me that I succeeded quite well. We tried to change the rhythm of the training stage and the content this week. As we entered the training ground, each unit was carried out with even more concentration than usual.

The team and their coexistence are completely intact. When you go through as many negative moments as we did this season, it’s even more amazing how they support and lift each other up.

Everyone knows we messed up big time that day. They were individual blackouts that I have never experienced before. I spoke to the boys. But I also talked to the other guys who maybe didn’t make the obvious mistakes. Each individual wanted too much, too much. The boys put too much pressure on themselves. We worked through the game properly, but we can’t turn back the clock.